Olympian Shawn Johnson to sign book in O.C.

Nov. 8, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson will sign her memoir, "Winning Balance," in Anaheim on Saturday. She's seen here on the podium where she received her gold medal for balance beam at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. FILE PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

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After winning a gold and three silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, gymnast Shawn Johnson won the mirror ball trophy on "Dancing With The Stars" in 2009. Now she's returned to "Dancing" for the all-star edition. ABC

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Gymnast Shawn Johnson posed for this portrait in November 2011 when she still hoped to return to the Olympics in London this past summer. However, a lingering knee injury knocked her out of that and led to her retirement from the sport. FILE PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES FOR USOC

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Shawn Johnson waves after competing in uneven bars at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2011. FILE PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

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"Winning Balance" is Shawn Johnson's memoir. She'll sign it on Saturday at the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney.

Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson will sign her memoir, "Winning Balance," in Anaheim on Saturday. She's seen here on the podium where she received her gold medal for balance beam at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. FILE PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Shawn Johnson book signing

Shawn Johnson won Olympic gold on the balance beam in Beijing in 2008. She took home the mirror ball trophy on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars" as its champion a year later.

And Johnson had hoped earlier this year to go for more gold at the London Olympics, but a lingering knee injury convinced her in June that it was time to retire from gymnastics, leaving her down and more than a little uncertain about what to do next.

And then the phone rang, says Johnson, who will appear in Orange County on Saturday to sign copies of her memoir "Winning Balance." ABC was on the line, asking her if she wanted to return to "Dancing With The Stars" to compete in its first-ever all-star edition.

"For me it was a pretty easy answer," Johnson says. "I had just retired from gymnastics and they literally called me the same day. I was a little low, just not knowing what to do and what direction to go, because I'd just left my career after 20 years.

"So I thought it was a great fit and a great distraction."

Not, mind you, that a competitor like Johnson would think of taking it easy on the show. Seven weeks in, she's in the Top 7 and three times she's received the top score of the week for her dance routines.

"I feel like I'm more confident this time around," she says. "I feel like I'm having more fun, picking things up easier and better. And just kind of enjoying it more."

She wrote her memoir, "Winning Balance," to share her story as she's lived it, Johnson says.

"I felt like throughout my whole career in gymnastics everybody covered my story except for me," she says. "At the time I never minded it. I loved what people wrote. But once I was out of that world I wanted to show the girls and the boys what it was like in that world. It wasn't that easy – there was a lot of hard work that went on behind the scenes."

She had kept diaries and journals over the years and relied on those as she worked with co-author Nancy French to tell her inspirational story. Much of it focuses on the gold and three silver medals she won in Beijing, but it also covers life before and after that high point, including what she felt as she moved through her teen years in the spotlight.

"One of the biggest things I talked about was (that) even when I was standing on top of the podium, getting a medal or being handed the mirror ball trophy, I was human like anyone else," Johnson says, describing how she was never as perfect and controlled as she sometimes was portrayed in the media. "I had insecurities. I wasn't floating on cloud nine.

"So readers will see, 'Oh, she's like me,'" she says.

After her run on "Dancing" ends, Johnson says she's got plenty of other dreams she wants to pursue.

"I'm working on a few things, kind of getting into the next phase and direction of my life," she says. "I want to work in the fitness world and kind of transfer into that for good. Open my own gym. And we're developing a TV show (about) health and fitness, too."

While she didn't compete in the London Olympics she was there, working for the "Today" show throughout the games.

"I got to see it from the other side," Johnson says. "It was definitely bittersweet. I felt I had to be there for the girls and support them. Gabby Douglas was from my gym, she's my teammate, and I really wanted to be there for her, too."

As far as the book signing on Saturday, Johnson says she expects it will be a mixed crowd, many of them fans from her long and successful run in gymnastics, but some newcomers who know her more from "Dancing With The Stars."

"I get a little of each," she says of the usual turnout at a book event. "You see girls who are 4 years old and their parents have bought the book and they can't even read it yet. And then you see grandmas and grandpas coming in with it and they want it because they've seen me on 'Dancing With The Stars.'

"That's what's so cool about my demographics, or the book's demographics."

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